Just A Few Weeks After The Eagles Win Their 2nd Consecutive Super Bowl, The Flyers Will Host The Penguins At Lincoln Financial Field
The Flyers have played in 3 outdoor games before. They lost to the Bruins 2-1 in overtime in the 2010 Winter Classic at Fenway. They lost to the Rangers 3-2 in the 2012 Winter Classic at Citizens Bank Park. Last year they lost to the Penguins in the 2017 Stadium Series at Heinz Field. And like they always say, the 4th time’s the charm as they’ll host the Penguins at Lincoln Financial Field for the 2019 Stadium Series.
Now I know the Stadium Series doesn’t have the same “allure” to it as the Winter Classic. Obviously the Winter Classic is running out of steam especially considering they only use about 10 different teams for it every year. But I feel like we’ve all just been trained at this point to be ready for outdoor hockey either the 1st or 2nd day of the year. A random outdoor game toward the end of February sneaks up on everybody and everybody forgets it’s happening until you see the game on TV and you’re like “oh yeah, they’re playing this one outside for some reason”. So while the Stadium Series game itself isn’t necessarily that much to get excited about, the month of February 2019 is going to be the most wonderful time of the year for Philly fans everywhere.
Think about it. February 3rd, 2019. Atlanta, Georgia. Carson Wentz caps off his 2nd straight MVP season with the 2nd Super Bowl in Philadelphia Eagles history. They said we could never win one Super Bowl. Carson & Co. just went out there and won 2 in a row. Meanwhile Jerry Jones has been forced out of Dallas, Dak Prescott has demanded to be traded, Tom Brady retires and it looks like the league belongs to Philly for at least the next decade. So there’s the Super Bowl on the 3rd, the parade probably on the 5th or the 6th, then just a few weeks later the Flyers host the Penguins at the Linc, home of the 2-time defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Tell me you’re not ready to run through a goddamn brick wall after that. To make it even better, coming out of the tunnel with the “C” on his sweater is Ivan Provorov and the Flyers are led by head coach Anybody Not Named Dave Hakstol.
So yeah. The Stadium Series itself is decently cool but doesn’t quite move the needle that much. However, the month of February 2019 will belong to the city of Philadelphia and there’s nothing that anybody can do to stop it. Unless, of course, there’s an all out nuclear war. But other than that, February 2019 belongs to Philly.
P.S. – I guess I’ll mention it here but Radko Gudas has been suspended 10 games for this slash on Mathieu Perreault.
I said this before and I’ll say it again. I don’t think this was an accident. I think Gudas knew exactly what he was doing and tried his best to play it off like it was incidental contact. Do I think he actually wanted to chop Perreault’s head off of his body? Probably not. But I do think he could have easily avoided slashing the guy but didn’t make any effort to. So I’m totally fine with this suspension. Even if it was an accident, Gudas has had too many questionable hits in his career to warrant any benefit of the doubt. When you have a track record like Gudas does, you need to toe the line. Going full Ned Stark on a guy is quite literally the opposite of toeing the line.
P.P.S. – Please, for the love of god, bring these sweaters back for the Stadium Series and then keep them as full time alternates.
